My Training:
It all began one beautiful Christmas Eve in 1992. My daughters, Shelley & Mary, had been enticing a cute little kitten with food. Therefore, this kitten decided she wanted to live with us. Now mind you, I already had a neutered male cat that had previous dibs on me. This didn't matter...we soon had a new kitten residing with us!
Now, the time came to name this kitten. She has evidently survived against all the odds of living outdoors with no home to call her own. She was a Miracle. Hence, her name became Miracle. Through time, this name evolved into Merkles. Merkles is mostly Siamese. She was hard to live with for the first two weeks and I had threatened that she will be out of the house unless she learned how to live with us. She learned how to live with me and the kids within the time frame allowed, so, almost 18yrs later, she is still with me.
Yes, I said, with me. LOL She had grown so old that Shelley couldnt see her get older and die. Like I said, Merkles will be 18 on October 31st...thankfully, she still lives. I still get the privilege of feeding her twice a day, giving her meds once a day, and cleaning out her kitty box umpteen times since the meds make her go several times a day! I get to change her water daily too. She prefers the filtered water as the regular tap water upsets her digestive system! She has her special food she prefers to eat, namely, PEOPLE food!
When I cook food for Daryl and I, Merkles is right there yelling at me for a sample. She has to wait until supper is done for any scraps...(I only say this cause I have been asked to not spoil her...but Daryl doesn't understand, this cat is persistent!!! So, yeah, she gets a taste! "Oooppps!! Aww, Merkles, this fell on the floor, its yours!) I do whatever I can to be sure she gets some good scraps too! It is, after all, what Merkles prefers!!
In the mornings, if I have not awakened, Merkles will stand, just stand at the end of my bed on the floor, and stare at me. Now, you know she is there, you can feel her presence! I quietly turn, to look and see if she is there. Yep! There she is! Oh no! She saw me looking at her! It's all over now! She yells at me...I tell her good morning...sit up, get dressed...and she escorts me to the bathroom! I take care of business and she walks me down the stairs into the kitchen to her food bowl. Well, shall I say her empty dirty bowl from the night before. I now am required to dispose of the old bowl and get a new one and feed her what she desires. Her fav food is canned tuna, of course. She gets that about once a month, maybe twice. She likes the water and the tuna both. I can dissolve her meds into the water and she drinks that and then eats the tuna. I do the same with her chicken packages, lol! See! she has me trained!
My Chair:
Well, it used to be my chair! It now is inhabited by Merkles most of the time. I have to practically beg her for my chair to do my radio show or my farms! She is a tough cookie! If I am in her, I mean my chair, she will stand on the box next to me (the left or right box) and yell at me. I think she says something like, "OUT of MY chair! Its MY naptime!! Move it ole lady!" Yeah, that's what it is she says, I just know it! She owns me AND my chair!
Her people preferences:
Now, mind you, I feed her, clean her box, and have loved her forever! You would think she is devoted to me, right? Wrong! When I would talk to my boyfriend on the phone before we moved in together, I had the speaker phone on to be able to hear him better. Well, Merkles decided she wanted to talk to him too. So, she meows. Daryl meows back. This goes on back and forth with each call. Nice, right? Noooooooooo! When Daryl came to visit me the first time and to meet my daughters, as soon as Merkles heard his voice, that was it! She recognized his voice from the phone calls! The next morning, does she tell me hi first, noooooooooooooo. She tells Daryl hello first! Hence, her new love is Daryl. She prefers his lap to mine. She sits closer to him than me. She talks to him in the mornings before me. When he comes home from work, she focuses on him! She wakes up from sleeping all day long, ignoring me, and gives him her full attention! Whats up with that! She is fickle! Yep, definitely fickle!!
How she trained Daryl:
When Merkles sits in his lap, he must cross his leg to where there is a little hole where she can nestle her hind end in for her comfort. She lays her front paws over the top of the crossed/bent knee like the Queen of Sheba! (See photo below!)
Now, I am not the jealous type, much...but dang it, Merkles was MY cat! I work my fingers to the bone for her! (Feel sorry for me yet?) Oh well...guess she likes owning more than one person at a time. I should be happy she loves him and he adores her. Oh and there is another inside cat that loved me more...well, until Daryl came along! (See Photo below!)
Yes, this is Mama...she was another outside cat that migrated with me to Daryl's. She falls all over herself to get to his side for petting or cooing (wooing) him...she cries out for his attention! Yes, she also owns Daryl...used to be me...I still get to feed her and clean out her part of the kitty box. She allows me to spoil her. Sometimes, she likes my chair too. She really likes the kitchen chair. Yep, she loves the chair I like to sit in while cooking and sometimes doing word search puzzles. Oh well...there is Harley too, the outside cat!! He likes to follow Daryl when he works outside! He lets me feed him and clean out his cat box too when he is inside the mud room! I get to hold him and scratch his head. If Daryl comes near, its Sayanara Momma!! (See photo below...Harley likes beer!)
Well, I do love my cats...and in their own way, they love me too...especially when I feed them and clean out their cat box and give up my chair! Now if they can only vacuum up their discarded fur!!! (Yes, I am trained to do that too! Grrrrr!!)
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